Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. Fires Back at Rotana

BEIRUT: Lebanese Media Holding (LMH) has alleged that the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) is refusing to pay amounts due under production-sharing arrangements between the two outfits, but the LBCI is now hitting back against the claims.

LMH, which is majority owned by Saudi prince Waleed Bin Talal, previously shut down its Production and Acquisition Company (PAC) television production facility and operations in Lebanon earlier this month. It cited significant losses as the reason. LMH is also claiming that this decision was related to LBCI’s refusal to pay for programming produced by PAC. The ongoing disputes with the head of LBCI and former head of PAC and Rotana TV then allegedly resulted in the inability of PAC to pay its employees.

The LBCI issued a statement today that seeks to "correct these falsehoods" brought against it by LMH, Rotana and its shareholders.

"LBCI would like to draw attention to the fact that responsibility for the actions taken by LMH and PAC vis a vis PAC’s employees, and which came after a series of failures by LMH and PAC in meeting their financial and other obligations to their suppliers and LBCI lays solely with them," the statement read. "Rotana’s subsidiary LMH has had for the last three and a half years a long history of delayed or missed payments and nonperformance with its counterparts and Rotana has further caused LMH to start missing on its payments and to deliberately take wrong commercial decisions.

"This position, along with other suspicious decisions taken by Rotana, owner of LMH, PAC and LBC SAT, has caused LMH to fail, over the last three years, to fully pay its dues to PAC while LBCI was making timely payment of its dues to LMH and PAC and accordingly, Rotana and LMH are solely responsible for PAC’s precarious financial situation."